AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Maggie paced back and forth, agitated. Finally, she knelt beside Sutherland. “What are the names of the slavers? Their ships? How many women?”
“A few dozen from large cities. Places where women disappear all the time because they’re too foolish to take precautions. A few disappear here, a few there… No one ever notices.”
Maggie lifted her hand to strike Sutherland, but Zirkov grabbed her around by the waist and pulled her away from the Assistant Director. “This isn’t you, Maggie.”
“He sold women and made me a part of it!”
“Beating him won’t change anything,” Zirkov whispered to her, barely containing his anger. He wanted to rip Sutherland into pieces for what he’d put Maggie through.
Zirkov hoisted the male up by his suit jacket. “Contacts. Landing sites. Ship schedules. Everything, Sutherland.”
“The slavers are all dead. She killed them.”
“Stop saying that!” Maggie yelled as she paced.
“Not all the og’dals are dead. We identified the bodies in the morgue. Bu’Tay, Pe’Dez, and An’Gow. I want Var’Len.”
“Never heard of him.”
Zirkov shoved a blade against Sutherland’s throat. “The lab said Marshal Walsh’s gun killed Bu’Tay, but it had your fingerprints on it along with residue from a powerful and rare mind-control drug, one that Var’Len sells. I can tie you to Var’Len in multiple ways.”
“I wore gloves when I gave her gun to Var’Len to kill Bu’Tay. My fingerprints can’t be on there.”
“You’re right. They’re not.” Zirkov tapped his comm. “But I recorded your confession. That should be enough for any court.”
“Fucking alien!”
“You mean I didn’t kill the og’dal?” Maggie’s eyes, wide and full of surprise, found Zirkov. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
He wanted to go to her, to hold her and tell her he’d known that all along even before he had any evidence. But he needed information from Sutherland while he was willing to talk.
“Why is Var’Len killing his associates?”
“Dal’s been cracking down on the slavers, executing any they capture. Var’Len’s eliminating any og’dals who put the other slavers and clients at risk.”
“Give me Var’Len and I’ll see if I can keep your people from shipping you to Dal as an accomplice to the slavers. They can do that, under the treaty with Galactic Intelligence.”
“I’m not dealing. Not without a guarantee from the U.S. District Attorney’s office that I go free.”
Zirkov looked at Maggie for her advice.
“They’ll give him what he wants if he has enough information on the slavers, especially how they’ve been getting through the defense shield. I don’t think Sutherland or anyone in the DAA has access to the shield’s codes or hardware. The Department of Defense and DAA use different dedicated systems. And we still have a lot of women that we need to locate and rescue, Zirkov. Sutherland knows too much for them to ignore.”
Zirkov pressed his knife against Sutherland’s throat. “I have a better offer. He talks, now, telling me everything, starting with where to find Var’Len. Or he dies.”
“If you kill me, my people will hunt you and your entire team and arrest you.”
“I will find a way to explain your death. You won’t be alive to contradict me.” Zirkov cut a thin line into Sutherland’s neck.
“I’ll tell you everything. You can find his ship hidden in—”
The popping of gunfire filled the air as bullets shattered windows and ricocheted off nearby engine parts. Zirkov grabbed Maggie and dove for cover behind discarded packing machinery. Sutherland slumped on his side down to the concrete, the back of his head missing.
Maggie pulled a gun from an ankle holster he didn’t know she had and fired off several rounds. No one returned fire as an eerie silence settled over the warehouse.
“One shooter. Where did you get that gun?”
“My apartment the other day, when you weren’t looking.” Crouched beside him, Maggie raised her head enough to see through a gap between the machinery. “What about Konnitch and Stenikov?”
